SPIRONIX
Rotating Spiral Biofilm Reactor:
a Continuous, Compact and Cost-efficient Bioreactor
Spironix is a research team within the University of Sheffield that has been working on and developing a rotating spiral bioreactor for over a decade. We are now participating in the Innovate UK’s ICURe Discover Programme.
The Spironix Project
We have developed a disruptive bioreactor technology that does not rely on a stirred tank and is continuous. Instead our reactor technology relies on spiral channels under rotation which can harbour a microbial biofilm. The biofilm formation is not coupled to microbial physiology but is rapidly established by injection of the microbial suspension and stabilised in place by centrifugal acceleration.
A continuous flow of liquid containing nutrients and reagents is started over the microbial film which catalyses product conversion. For aerobic or gas fermentation reactions, a supply of gas is introduced in the channel.
We have demonstrated a greater than one order of magnitude increase in productivity from a microbial system in our bioreactor compared to conventional stirred tank bioreactors. We believe that with further optimisation this observed increase in productivity can be substantially surpassed.
A key feature of our bioreactor is that it offers a seamless transition from lab scale to industrial production by stacking multiple spiral channels.
The rotating spiral bioreactor addresses the limitations of current bioprocessing and enables the full potential of biotechnology to be realised, by allowing:
- Continuous processing
- More concentrated product streams
- Higher productivity
- Automatic scalability
- Elimination of seed train
- Reduced reactor size
- Lower power consumption
- Low maintenance requirements
- Impeller-free mixing
- Optimal aeration
- Virtually silent operation
- Modularity
Video showing reactor start-up
The Problem
In the global efforts to achieve net-zero carbon emissions, it is expected that the chemicals industry will rely heavily on biotechnology to reduce reliance on synthetic production routes. But current bioprocessing methods are inefficient, costly and involve unreliable scale-up from lab to production scale. Product titres are low as a consequence of reaction inhibition or cell toxicity associated with high concentrations of the product. Volumetric efficiency is further affected by poor reactor utilisation, both due to down time for batch reactor turnaround and since the reactor is only fully used at the end of the batch production period. The rotating spiral biofilm bioreactor avoids these problems by retaining the microbial cells in a thick film held in place by centrifugal acceleration, so biofilm behaviour results, allowing greater resistance to product levels and higher cell volume fractions in the reactor. The performance at lab scale is retained at production scale, which is reached by simply stacking multiple spiral channels, allowing effortless transition from the lab to industrial production; ultimately galvanising the transition towards a net-zero, green bioeconomy.
Spironix Solution
Our Rotating Spiral Bioreactor takes advantage of the centrifugal and Coriolis acceleration generated during rotation to retain cells in a packed bed of active biomass over the outer wall of the spiral channel and give convective motion in an adjacent flowing liquid stream that allows effective transfer of reagent and products across the bed of cells allowing continuous processing.
Gases are introduced at the outer end of the spiral and slide up the inner wall of the channel to supply oxygen and other required gas species. The key to reliability is in the geometry: no complex moving parts to fail, only a steadily rotating spiral reactor unit, allowing a reliable machine that is energy efficient and convenient to clean.
The rotating spiral biofilm bioreactor significantly reduces Capex and Opex using 10 to 100 times smaller bioreactors that will be cheaper to manufacture, will be more reliable to operate and will achieve higher titres compared to conventional CSTR technology.
Spironix Team
Ahmed Tamher Dahraoui
Entrepreneurial Lead
Dr. Jordan MacInnes
Engineering Scientific Lead
Dr. Esther Karunakaran
Biology Scientific Lead
Get in touch
Contact our team using the form if you would like to learn more about our project and our rotating spiral bioreactor technology.
Our bioreactor is industry agnostic and can be used in a wide range of processes. But we would like to engage with specialty chemicals manufacturers such as Fragrances and Flavours manufacturers, Pharmaceuticals and Biopharmaceuticals manufacturers, Biosurfactants manufacturers and Biofuels manufacturers.